Archive for the ‘Human Resources Management’ Category

Communication is a hallmark of any healthy relationship. A recent study from Gallup, ‘State of the American Manager,’ found that consistent communication is strongly connected to higher engagement. Employees whose managers hold regular meetings with them are almost three times as likely to be engaged as employees whose managers do not hold regular meetings with them.

The frequency of meetings is less important to employees than the fact that they happen at all. The Gallup study also found that engagement is highest among employees who have some form (face-to-face, phone or electronic) of daily communication with their manager. And while all forms of communication are effective, managers who use a combination of face-to-face, phone and electronic communication are the most successful at engaging employees.

Employees value communication from their manager not just about their role and responsibilities, but also about what happens in their life outside of work. The Gallup study revealed that employees who feel as though their manager is invested in them as people are more likely to be engaged.

Approachability is a key attribute of a good manager. Employees who feel that they can talk with their manager about non-work-related issues are much more likely to be engaged.

2. PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT BEYOND ANNUAL REVIEWS

Performance management is often a source of great frustration for employees and managers alike. Employees often do not clearly understand their goals or what is expected of them at work. They feel uncertainty about their duties and disconnected from the bigger picture. For these employees, annual reviews and developmental conversations frequently feel forced and superficial. It is difficult for them to think about next year’s goals when they are not even sure what tomorrow will throw at them.

Yet, when performance management is done well, employees become more productive, profitable and creative contributors. The same Gallup study found that employees whose managers excel at performance management activities are more engaged than employees whose managers struggle with these same tasks. Finally, when managers help their employees set work priorities and performance goals they are much more likely to be engaged.

Not sure where to start with performance management or have a specific question? Contact our Advice & Resolution team today!

What does it take to have a GREAT day? Here are a few simple things you can do to begin your day, practice throughout your day and end your day to make each day a GREAT day:

Begin Each Day with Positive Thoughts

Start the day by reading or listening to an inspirational story or even a single thought. Some desk calendars have a positive “thought of the day” which are very helpful.

Complement Work Goals with Life Goals

Almost always, work is tied to something personal in an employee’s life. It may be compensation or benefits, or it could be just personal satisfaction. Work success affects life success and the reverse is also very true.

Mental Preparation

Most employees have a commute of some kind to work each day. Instead of using that time to accomplish work-related tasks, use that time to prepare for the workday ahead. Likewise, use the commute home to decompress so work does not interfere with personal time once you arrive.

Smile

A smile can be contagious. If there is genuine happiness behind the smile, that is great. If not, force a smile and spread some happiness anyway. Spreading happiness contributes to being happy.

Be Positive

Keep a positive attitude around others. Similar to a smile, a positive attitude will spread and affect the entire group.

Prioritize

Everyone has too much to do, so it is important to prioritize. Twenty percent (20%) of all activity contributes to 80% of results. So, hit that 20% hard to maximize productivity and ensure a successful day.

Ignore Negativity

There is always someone around with a negative attitude who wants to get everyone else feeling negative as well. Misery loves company! Do not let them ruin a positive day or take away from significant accomplishments. Avoid them and focus on the tasks at hand.

Avoid Long Workdays

Extra hours do not always equate to additional productivity. Chances are, most of the productivity will happen early in the day during the completion of those 20% of higher priority tasks. Adding more hours will not increase overall productivity.

Take Time to Relax

After work, take time to enjoy a relaxing activity and use that time to re-charge for the next day. Put the previous workday aside and leave it for tomorrow. This is part of the overall work-life balance.

End The Day With a Grateful Thought

Before turning in for a night’s rest, give some thought to events of the day for which to be grateful. In other words, any day “could have been worse.” Be grateful it was not worse, and attribute that to a positive attitude. Your grateful thought could be either professional or personal.

People like being appreciated. Simple efforts of recognition, particularly when made public to their managers and/or co-workers, encourage a supportive and productive working relationship.

Happy Thanksgiving from CAI and remember sometimes, the simplest gestures are the ones that mean the most.

Graham Personnel found that 59% of employers are having difficulty hiring qualified applicants. They also report the top three employer concerns are:

Retention and employee relation issues (28%)

Recruiting (27%)

Other factors in their organization including sales and marketing (10%)

A 2016 SHRM survey found similar results. In their survey, SHRM reports that 68% of employers had difficulty filling full-time jobs in the past 12 months. In 2013, only 50% of employers reported hiring difficulty.

These elevated numbers are concerning. Employers understand the importance of recruiting the right talent, and the impact it has on their growth and productivity. Recruiting and retaining talented individuals with the needed skill set has always been the lifeblood to organizations.

With the tightening labor market, employers are assessing what they need to do to either become, or remain, competitive. Health benefits are an area of focus that employers are using to differentiate themselves. In fact, 38% of SHRM respondents stated they leveraged their health and welfare benefits to gain a competitive advantage in recruiting.

What is your strategy towards offering health and welfare benefits to your employees? How do you want your benefits to compare to the competition? What benefits do you need to offer to recruit, retain and reward your employees? What are other organizations doing to control cost and to also remain competitive? These are all questions you should be asking yourselves.

If you are curious how your medical benefits “stack up,” we can assist you. For the past 11 years, we have partnered with Capital Associated Industries (CAI) to produce a North Carolina state wide survey with nearly 650 respondents. This survey allows you to compare your medical benefits and cost to other organizations of similar size, industry type and in your area. Having this type of information can be valuable, especially as you recruit in this tight labor market. If you are interested in learning more about benchmarking your health plan, contact us!

Are you a Micromanager? Do others consider you to be? Hopefully, the answer to both of these questions is “No.” The term Micromanager is widely thought to be one of the most unflattering labels you can have if you manage people. Micromanagers typically involve themselves so deeply into the smallest details of every project they manage it actually inhibits productivity and creates a very unpleasant workplace for the team as a whole.

Granted, not being a Micromanager is better than being a Micromanager. But is there something even better? Yes! A Macromanager.

Macromanagers deal with employees more efficiently, taking advantage of their individuality and contributing strengths to the overall team. Macromanagers provide a work environment which allows a team to work together and empowers them to not only make decisions, but to also make mistakes and to learn from both. This creates a bi-directional feeling of trust, while maintaining a sense of employee engagement and generating results.

How can you become a Macromanager? How can you make the transition all the way from Micromanager to Macromanager? Try implementing these four traits of a Macromanager:

Focus on The Big Picture – Micromanagers get too deep in the weeds of a project rather than looking at things from a 10,000-foot viewpoint. To be a good Macromanager, focus more of your energy and attention on the organization’s direction and strategy for the future. In doing so, you can develop creative ideas on how to get there and trust your team to use their collective strengths to work out the details for success.

Understand Your Audience – Micromanagers tend to micromanage everyone, even those who do not need it. Macromanagers may occasionally need to provide more detailed guidance to a team member who is less experienced. When you see that team member begin to “get it,” step back before entering “Micromanager Mode.” Have a stronger member of your team work with and mentor the less experienced employees.

Observe – Watch the progress of your team, keeping your distance. As an experienced manager, you will recognize the cues that tell you when to engage and when to hold back. Your responsibility is the successful completion of the project overall, so you should always be involved as a manager, mentor, advisor and member of the team. Successful people surround themselves with successful people. Give your team room to succeed and let them know you are there if they need you.

Welcome Feedback – Find a way to ask questions regarding progress without coming across as “interfering.” As the manager responsible for overall success, you have the right and the responsibility to know what is going on. Make sure your team understands you are not there to judge or to criticize, but to offer help and observations if and when needed. Open communication should be encouraged.

As a manager, you have larger responsibilities to the organization. If you ever find yourself getting too deep into the weeds of any one project, you should ask yourself, “What should I be doing in my job that I am not doing?” Chances are there is something else you should be focusing more time on. Your employees will thrive and progress more quickly with your guidance rather than your direct involvement.

CAI Advice & Resolution team member Renee Watkins is a seasoned HR professional with a diverse background in Human Resource. Renee provides CAI members with practical advice in a wide-range of human resource functions including conflict resolution, compliance and regulatory issues, and employee relations.

Winter months are just around the corner and with them comes colder weather. We don’t get as much “white stuff” as our Northern Brethren but when we do things get messy. Be reminded that employee injuries on employer owned and maintained parking lots may be covered by workers’ compensation and may be OSHA recordable depending upon circumstances relating to the injury. If injuries occur at a reasonable time (just prior to or just after work) and injuries result in medical treatment, days away from work or restricted activity, both workers’ comp and OSHA record keeping come into play.

Winter weather poses a particular problem regarding parking lot and sidewalk injuries. Both should be maintained free of snow and ice to prevent employee injuries. Potential costly injures to customers, vendors and to the general public would not be covered by workers’ compensation but by an employer’s liability insurance.

Employers also need to be aware of the dangers of overexertion in winter months. Liberty Mutual Insurance Company conducted a study a few years ago revealing that more than 25% of disabling workplace injuries resulted from overexertion. Overexertion also poses a major threat to ones’ health and life outside of work, especially in geographical areas that experience extreme snow and ice accumulation like the Northeast this past winter. Around 100 people die in the US every winter as a result of shoveling snow. For more tips dealing with colder weather go to https://www.ready.gov/winter-weather.

Perhaps a more vexing issue we deal with each year surrounds pay practices during inclement weather. Exempt employees are paid on a salaried basis. If the company is closed, the exempt employee must be paid for the day(s) to maintain the exemption status. It is the company’s decision as to whether or not exempts are required to take a vacation day. Keep in mind that if the exempt does not have vacation or PTO to cover the absence, the exempt must be paid.

If the office is open and the exempt decides not to report to work, the day can be charged to vacation or PTO. If in this situation the exempt does not have vacation or PTO, the company is allowed to dock for the day due to personal reasons. This is one of the allowed deductions under the FLSA without destroying the exemption status. Be reminded, however, that if the exempt works any part of the day, the exempt must be paid for the entire day. This often comes in to play when the exempt does not come into work but works a partial day from a laptop or other electronic device.

Performance cultures have great focus on results and accountability and have the following traits:

Accountable, results driven

A focus on people

Long-term orientation

Proactive and decisive

Open and transparent

How do you create a Performance Culture?

Changing a culture is really about changing the behaviors of the people in the organization. Changing behavior is not accomplished through a one-time training class or some special incentive. Instead, it requires a long-term view with regular and frequent support from the top of the organization.

Leadership’s Role is to Provide Clarity & Ensure Accountability

Senior leaders have the greatest impact in terms of creating a performance culture. It starts with the creation of a strategic direction, delivered with great clarity. Employees must get a sense that those leaders are taking the company in the right direction. A second element involves leadership’s focus on people. Part of that focus must be that the leaders are seen as being concerned for the well-being of their employees. In addition, they must be viewed by the ‘rank-and-file’ as being accessible and approachable. Finally, leaders must model the desired behaviors (and values) every day and with every employee interaction. Their most critical behavior is demonstrating accountability.

Many companies struggle to hold their employees, managers, and leaders accountable for performance. Likely a big reason for this is that people struggle to set clear expectations and have difficult performance conversations. The truth is that there must be consequences for failing to meet expectations and commitments. That is the essence of accountability. Without consequences, there is chaos.

A terrific resource for helping to people better understand and deliver accountability is ‘The Oz Principle.’ The book is dedicated to sharing practical methods on how to improve both individual and organizational accountability. The spirit of the book is that both people and organizations have a choice to either act above or below the accountability line. This thin line separates success from failure.

Below the line lies excuse making, blaming others, confusion, and an attitude of helplessness. Conversely, companies and people that act above the line have a sense of reality, ownership, commitments, and are solutions oriented.

Answer these questions to determine if your organization is operating below the line:

Do our employees tend to ignore or deny problems?

When something needs to be done, do our employees say “It’s not my problem”?

Is there finger pointing behavior in which people seek to shift the blame to others?

Do our employees say “I’m confused, tell me what to do to solve the problem”?

Is there a CYA mentality?

Do employees take a “wait and see, maybe things will get better” approach?

The Role of HR

How can you as an HR professional influence the performance culture? Here are a couple of suggestions:

Train on Accountability

Train both leaders and their teams on the crucial relationship between accountability and organizational results

The following post is by Bruce Clarke, CAI’s CEO and President. The article originally appeared in Bruce’s News & Observer column, The View from HR.

Almost no one likes the performance management system at work, including employees, managers and HR.

Employees dislike infrequent feedback, the high-pressure focus on negative comments, ratings under 4 or 5, reviews given by untrained managers and too much subjectivity in ratings or comments.

Managers dread the time required, confronting problem performers, the disconnect with important work, rigid forms and barriers to paying high performers more.

HR really gets edgy when managers use the system to manipulate pay, submissions are chronically late, the total time and cost required is excessive and unjustified halo reviews damage legal defenses in terminations.

What to do?

WorldatWork* published an extensive review of performance management trends in its Q2 2016 Journal. HR experts, practitioners and consultants put forth their best current practices and strategies. Surprisingly, much of the action is with smaller employers (under 500 people) and manufacturers.

The big trends are 1) frequent conversations rather than annual reviews, 2) simplified or eliminated ratings scales, and 3) input from peers and others. In fact, most organizations using these trends have some combination of new techniques plus the best features of their former system.

Frequent Conversations

Ongoing feedback strengthens relationships and promotes clarity. Sometimes these conversations are difficult, but frequency allows timely correction and coaching rather than delayed criticism. When managers talk monthly or quarterly with employees, everyone knows more about expectations, successes and hurdles. The conversation is less of a review and more of a check-in. There might be a simplified annual review and a year-end pay discussion as well.

Get Rid of Ratings

In general, top performers are offended by any rating below perfect. A debate over 4.6 versus 5.0 is not useful and may damage retention. Reviews are not good at delivering precision and repeatability in ratings, anyway. So, if we are irritating our best people, overrating our average performers and super-overrating poor performers to get them a raise, stop the madness!

Peer Feedback

A less common but interesting option is peer feedback. Usually, peer feedback is ongoing in the form of kudos and applause for work well done. Software makes this easy to do and is readily available (such as SoundBoard). Targeted comments on specific dimensions such as company values, results achieved and leadership skills might be sought. When you seek constructive feedback from peers, everyone needs training in the how and why. The impact of good data is powerful.

So far, the experience with new approaches is good. They still take time, but improved linkage to company values, to the work required and to employee skill growth is significant. Traditional and annual systems are slightly better at identifying the poorest performers.

HR has driven most of this change. Successful users say you must get top leadership buy-in. Managers need training to understand the new processes and why the changes were made.

The right performance management system can be a competitive business advantage and retention tool. The wrong one can be, well, like the one you have right now. Contact CAI’s Advice & Resolution team to help your goal of the right performance management system.

Bruce Clarke serves as CAI’S President and CEO, and has been with CAI since 2001. Bruce practiced labor and employment law with the national labor law firm of Ogletree Deakins for 18 years. He is listed in The Best Lawyers in America and was selected as one of North Carolina’s Legal Elite by Business North Carolina Magazine. Bruce is 100% committed to helping companies maximize employee engagement and minimize workplace liabilities.

CAI’s 2016 Triad Employment Law Update was attended by nearly 200 HR professionals seeking information and updates on federal and state laws and regulations facing North Carolina employers. HR experts from CAI along with attorneys from Costangy Brooks Smith & Prophete LLP presented on a variety of topics of significance to North Carolina employers.

A few highlights from this year’s conference:

On December 1, 2016, the Overtime Rule goes into effect and raises the threshold to $913/week or $47,476 per year; $134,004 for highly compensated employees. Be sure you fully understand the differences between an employee and an independent contractor. The USDOL and NCIC have signed an agreement to oversee compliance with various regulations and work together to reduce employee misclassification, among other things.

Review your handbooks regularly. Many employee handbooks contain a policy or language that may trigger a complaint by the NLRB. Ensure that your policies are not too broad or too vague, as this will leave them open to interpretation.

Regarding enforcement protections for LGBT, the EEOC states that employers must comply with federal law, even if state law conflicts or offers no protection for this group. LGBT charge filings and resolutions are on the rise as more employees become aware that they can file claims. For further clarification, you can view the EEOC Fact Sheet on protections for LGBT workers here.

Workplace bullying can be physical, physically threatening or non-physical. In North Carolina, there are currently no laws against workplace bullying but employers should not tolerate bullying on any level. High turnover, low productivity, lost innovations and difficulty hiring quality employees can all result from workplace bullying.

According to ADAAA, employers have an obligation to engage in good faith in the interactive process to determine if an employee has a disability and whether there are reasonable accommodations that can be implemented. Reasonable accommodations under the ADAAA can include assistive devices, change in assignments, service animals and telecommuting. Many employers have found individuals with disabilities to be productive and loyal employees.

Employers may use bonuses to satisfy part of the new standard salary level test. The DOL allows nondiscretionary bonuses and incentive payments (including commissions) to satisfy up to 10 percent of the standard salary test requirement. Such bonuses include, for example, nondiscretionary incentive bonuses tied to productivity or profitability (a bonus based on the specified percentage of the profits generated by a business in the prior quarter.)

North Carolina law does allow employers to test job applicants and employees for drug or alcohol impairment and regulates the procedures that employers must follow in implementing such testing. State law does not require employers to drug test, but it does regulate those employers who voluntarily choose to implement a drug-testing program.

Don’t put a non-compete clause in an employee handbook. Have a standalone non-compete or employment agreement with a non-compete provision. When developing a non-compete, keep in mind that the narrower in geographic scope the better. Be sure to have your job candidate sign this agreement before or on the first day of employment with your company.

Penalties for non-compliance of the ACA are $1,000 per enrollee for willful failures. However, good faith compliance efforts can excuse penalties. The DOL has more information on their website.

Title VII prohibits religious discrimination and requires reasonable accommodations as it pertains to religion. Broadly defined, religion includes “Ultimate ideas” about “life, purpose, and death.”

Under FMLA an employee who has given birth is entitled to 12 weeks of leave. Mothers who return to work and are breastfeeding must be provided breaks to express milk and have access to a clean, safe, private place for this purpose.

As November 8th nears, employers may want to consider allowing employees some paid time off to vote, if there is insufficient time for the employee to vote outside of working hours. Although there is no statute in North Carolina that mandates time off to vote, terminating an employee for taking time off to vote could be the basis for tort action for wrongful discharge. Employers should encourage their employees to exercise their right to vote.

More than 1,100 North Carolina employers trust CAI to help them minimize liability and maximize employee engagement, contact CAI at 919-878-9222 or email leeann.graham@capital.org to learn more about the many ways we can help you.

I obviously don’t work for your company, but my experience tells me there is a better than average chance that you have subpar performers that you’re letting work at your company and it is draining your company’s productivity, profit, and growth. I wish I was wrong but I see it everywhere, every day in every industry.

Think about the poor performers in your life. At work, at school, at church, at the stores you frequent, maybe even at home. Infuriating isn’t. Missed deadlines, waiting in line, poor customer service, sloppy or slow processes, etc. Do you feel your blood pressure rising? Believe me, top performers really appreciate having to do more work to cover for their uninspired co-workers. In fact that’s a leading cause of turnover for top performers – burn out over cleaning up the messes made by their slack co-workers AND frustration that their managers will not clean it up.

Bruce Tulgan, noted management author and thought leader and past speaker at CAI’s HR Management Conference believes that “undermanagement” is one of the most detrimental phenomenon affecting business today. He wrote a best-selling book called “It’s OK To Be The Boss.” Why are so many managers not “being the boss” and letting poor performance slide? We hear things like…

“Well Sally is better than having no one in the job and it’s hard to find good people.”

“At our pay Jim is the best we can afford.”

“I’m not dealing with this behavior because I know other managers let it slide.”

“I don’t have time to deal with Terry.”

“Don has been here forever and he’s always been this way, why should I have to deal with it?”

HR is blamed a lot.

“Our HR Department won’t let us fire anyone around here.”

“I would address it, but HR won’t let me because Joe is in a protected category.”

And on and on.

Poor Performance generally comes in three categories:

Don’t know what to do. Many employees regularly wander around our workplaces not knowing what is expected of them. This category of poor performance rests with Managers, who simply need to take the time to provide clearer expectations for their employees. Most people will perform just fine when they know what to do.

Can’t do what you’re asking. Sometimes we can salvage this “can’t-do” category with training. Sometimes, though training will not correct the performance and in those cases the employee should be transferred to an open job they can do or they need to go work for someone else.

Won’t do what you’re asking. This is the most dangerous category. Employees who won’t do what you’re asking create tremendous problems in the workplace every day. Whether they vocalize their refusal or utilize more subtle activities, like slowing down, or overlooking things, there is only one solution for these people – they need to leave, and soon.

I once heard it put, hire slow and fire fast. Good words to live by. Yet I frequently find companies actually do the opposite – they hire quickly and impulsively and then take forever to separate the problem employee. Many performance problems are really hiring problems in disguise. So my advice, take more time assessing candidates. Most HR professionals know within the first five minutes of orientation if a new hire will make it or not. Why didn’t they uncover that earlier? HR professionals sometimes tell me the line managers decided to hire the person against HR’s advice. So who is at fault? I advise HR professionals to stand their ground and use turnover data to make your case. And once you know someone is a poor performer, address it quickly. Fairly and respectfully, yes, but quickly.

The time between losing confidence in someone and them leaving is one of the most expensive in a manager’s life. So if you’re a manager, start being the boss and quit letting poor performance slide and quit hiring people that should not work for your company because you are desperate. Your employees will thank you, because believe me they know who shouldn’t be there and they talk about it and suffer through it every day. If you’re in HR do not let a lawsuit that will probably never happen overly impact how you deal with problems. The EEOC actually dismisses two-thirds of all claims filed and only finds cause in about 3% of the charges it receives each year. However, letting poor performers remain is a real problem that is draining your company every day. I’m not advocating for a wild west management style absent of warnings and second chances. I am suggesting we run our companies in a way that maximizes results versus running it out of fear. After all a rising tide lifts all boats right!

I know this sounds pretty straightforward. Who doesn’t get this right? Ask yourself that question the next time as a consumer you have a bad customer experience at the hands of a problem employee. You’ll be in that situation sometime this week and you’ll ask yourself why that company lets that person treat its customers that way. Well, for the same reason it’s allowed at your company. Think about it.

If you need help dealing with problem performance at your company please reach out to our Advice and Resolution team. They answer thousands of questions each year that deal with performance management.

Doug Blizzard brings a wealth of knowledge to CAI, serving as Vice President of Membership. During his first 15 years at CAI he led the firm’s consulting and training divisions and counseled hundreds of clients on HR and Employee Relations issues. If he isn’t speaking at North Carolina conferences, teaching classes on Human Resources or consulting clients on EEO and Affirmative Action, Doug is leading the company’s membership services.

Conventional wisdom often creates a strong linkage between performance evaluation ratings and compensation. On its face, this link seems completely appropriate. After all, it is only natural for people to think that stronger performance deserves more pay, weaker performance less.

However, a performance / compensation model with this direct link has a number of inherent downsides. First, many managers “force fit” employee rankings into desired compensation distributions in order maintain budget. This practice discredits the performance system, breeds cynicism, and demotivates employees.

Another unwanted side effect of a direct linkage between performance rating and compensation is that many employees worry excessively about the pay implications related to the differences in ratings. As a consequence, they become fixated on their rating and drown out any discussion about developmental needs.

Focusing less on the link itself between performance and compensation allows companies to worry less about tracking and rating, and the consequences thereof, and more about building capabilities and inspiring employees to stretch their skills and aptitudes. Now, to be clear, I am not suggesting that compensation has no linkage with performance. I simply believe that the focus on the immediate linkage, at the time of the review, has several drawbacks that take away from the intended outcome of the performance review process and discussion.

Here is the rub: Since only a relatively few employees are truly standouts, (5-10%, perhaps 15%) why risk demotivating the broad majority of your employee base by focusing almost exclusively on the linkage between pay and performance.

Even General Electric, a long time proponent of the performance – pay linkage model and all the related processes and templates that go with it, is currently reinventing itself in this arena. They are considering options ranging from dispensing with the entire model to a more gradual shift over time. They also understand that they must equip their managers with new tools and methods to motivate and reward employees.

The growing need for companies to inspire and motivate performance makes it critical to create managers and supervisors who are better coaches. Without great and frequent coaching, it’s difficult to set goals flexibly and often, to help employees stretch their jobs, or to give people greater responsibility and autonomy while demanding more expertise and judgment from them.

If you’re rethinking your organization’s performance management process, you don’t have to go it alone. Contact CAI’s Advice & Resolution team to help you and your leadership team evaluate alternative models and coach you through making a change.

Who We Are

CAI is a non-profit member based organization. We help more than 1,000 North Carolina member companies maximize employee engagement and minimize employer liability. We serve the greater Research Triangle, Piedmont, Triad and 65 central and eastern counties of North Carolina.